By Liv Ingram
Film director and Simon Fraser University film- student Brendan Prost is taking his latest film, Spaces and Reservations, on a cross- country tour. This is the third independent film by the Calgary-native, but the first feature he is taking across Canada.
“The tour came about when we realized that a lot of the conventional exhibition and distribution avenues for feature films weren’t really going to be accessible to us, because of how small the film is,” says Prost. “It’s a lengthy movie, but it’s mostly low-concept. It’s very performance-intensive, character-driven.”
Spaces and Reservations centres around Jamie (Zach White) and Kacie (Taylor Hastings), a 20-something couple whose long-term relationship isn’t working out. As the two drift apart, Zach develops interest in another woman. Instead of being unfaithful, he decides to salvage his relationship. While he is developing feelings for someone else, so is Kacie. It’s only when their relationship is brought to an end that they’re able to rekindle a sense of intimacy and understanding.
The dialogue is crafted to capture the nuances and awkward tensions of long-term relationships. It is through the moments when Jamie and Kacie are talking — but not really communicating — that the film reaches a level of emotional honesty which makes it feel real.
“In the early half, Jamie and Kacie’s relationship is suffering from this malaise and this disconnect,” says Prost. “It is all stuff that kind of lives in subtext, then the latter half of the film everything kind of bubbles to the surface.”
To capture the slow disintegration of their relationship, the pacing of the scenes is deliberate and thoughtful.
While the film’s running time is 140 minutes, Prost notes that the actors had the freedom to set the pace of the scenes in a way that felt natural and true to the characters.
“I’m proud to have made something that is patient and observative and is so focused on giving these characters enough time to live and to breathe,” says Prost. “I think there’s really something to be said about spending time watching people live their lives.”
Spaces and Reservations plays only one night at the Globe Theatre on Friday, June 6 at 6:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. Tickets are available at the door or at spacesfilm.com